Rectangular grave slab: 11th century

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Rectangular grave slab, with carved decoration of a lion tangled together with a snake. The lion's ears are stretched and curled at the ends. He looks away from the snake and has his tongue stuck out. This rectangular slab of limestone, probably Combe Down Oolite from near Bath, is carved in low relief with a stylised lion fighting a serpent, in the style known as 'Ringerike'. This style was popular in Scandinavia and England in the 1000s. There are traces of paint. The left-hand edge has a two-line inscription in the runic alphabet used in Scandinavia at this time: ":[k]ina: let: lekia: st | in: þensi: auk: tuki:". The language is Old Norse, and it means 'Ginna and Toki had this stone laid'. The stone, which was found just outside St Paul's Cathedral, probably marked the grave of a follower of the Danish king Cnut, who ruled England from 1016 to 1035